News

HIT Congress 2009: empirica presents results of eHealth Benchmarking and Good eHealth studies

Mon, 8 Jun 2009
empirica researcher Jörg Artmann was invited to this year's Health Information Technologies Congress in Paris to present and discuss results of the eHealth Benchmarking and Good Practice eHealth studies. Together with fellow discussants Martin Denz, president of EHTEL and Pascal Garel, president of HOPE, the current eHealth situation in Europe and the challenges related to measuring eHealth progress were critically reviewed. A short analytical paper on the challenges related to measuring eHealth is available under the title: "Mesurer le progrès dans le domaine de la e-Santé Benchmarking et « bonnes pratiques »" (eHealth Benchmarking and Good Practices), written by Jörg Artmann with the support of Ingo Meyer and Maike Didero, empirica GmbH.

For more information see www.health-it.fr
Download as pdf file: Mesurer le progrès dans le domaine de la e-Santé Benchmarking et « bonnes pratiques »

Indicators eHealth: French translation of country profile available

Mon, 08 Jun 2009
The French results of the ICT and eHealth survey among General Practitoners are now available in a French translation under the title: "Analyse comparative sur l’usage des TIC par les médecins généralistes européens en 2007." The translation was kindly prepared by Jean-Jacques Fraslin and is available on the website of i-med.fr.

Download as pdf file: French translation of country profile

Successful workshop on eHealth Benchmarking in Prague

Tue, 03 March 2009. Bonn/Prague, 18 February 2009. How widely spread is eHealth monitoring and benchmarking in the EU, Canada and the US? What activities, applications and health actors are covered by current monitoring activities? What needs to be done to come to a comprehensive, EU-wide eHealth benchmarking? These and other questions were discussed at a workshop on eHealth benchmarking held by empirica in Prague prior to the EU eHealth conference. The workshop was part of the eHealth Benchmarking study and attracted more than 40 experts from all over Europe.
During the workshop, the key outcomes of the one-year research conducted by the study were presented by empirica research consultant Ingo Meyer and received with great interest. Representatives from a number of eHealth Benchmarking good practice cases presented their approaches to monitoring eHealth and spoke about lessons learned. In a final discussion, chaired by empirica director Werner B. Korte, a number of stakeholders from various areas including policy makers, IT industry and user organisations had their say on what eHealth benchmarking should look like in the future. There was general agreement that the demand for high-quality, comparable data on eHealth availability, use and impacts will increase. An important step on the way to meet this demand was seen in the development of a common indicator framework, as is currently being done by the eHealth Benchmarking study, also in close co-operation with other stakeholders such as the OECD. At the same time it became clear that the question of financing will be one of the main issues to be resolved. Results of the eHealth Benchmarking study - including the final study report, 12 Good Practice Case and 31 Country Briefs - are expected to become publicly available soon. The workshop also received good online news coverage, articles can for example be found on eHealth Europe and HealthTech Wire.

eHealth use among primary care physicians in Europe of great international interest - presentation at a conference in Victoria, Canada

Mon, 19 May 2008. Bonn/Victoria, 21 February 2009. empirica research consultant Ingo Meyer presented the outcomes of the eHealth Indicators survey on ICT use among European General Practitioners and of the eHealth Benchmarking study at the ITCH 2009 in Victoria, Canada. An audience of international researchers and practictioners in the field of eHealth and telemedicine showed a great interest in the data gathered by means of an EU-wide survey in 2007 (to learn more about this survey, please visit http://www.ehealth-indicators.eu. An overview of the key outcomes of empirica's eHealth Benchmarking study was met with similar interest.
The questions and answers and the discussion following the presentation clearly showed that eHealth is an issue that is of top concern not only to Europeans, but to many other countries as well.

"ICT and eHealth use among General Practitioners in Europe" as a key note speech at the ePractice Mid-Term workshop

Mon, 19 May 2008. On May 19, 2008, one year after its launch, the ePractice.eu portal celebrated a Mid-Term workshop. Werner B. Korte, empirica gave the key note speech on eHealth by way of presenting results of the study "ICT and eHealth use among General Practitioners in Europe" carried out for the European Commission DG INFSO and Media. The study included a survey of almost 7,000 primary care physicians on their use of ICT and internet for communication with patients and between primary and secondary care and other health agencies was carried out in 2007 in all 27 Member States of the European Union and in Norway and Iceland. The one-day event was held in Brussels, in the European Commission’s premises, with the presence of high-level officials responsible of the eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth European policies and relevant experts from the private and public sectors.

Advisory Board meeting of the "eHealth Benchmarking" study took place at the European Ministerial eHealth Conference 2008

Tue, 13 May 2008. The Advisory Board meeting took place on 6 May 2008 and was attended by around 10 invited experts from different institutions and backgrounds (e.g. OECD, WHO, national governments, IT industry, research and academics) and the European Commission. empirica presented the Inception Report of the study which will act as the roadmap of the one year project to deliver ist results towards the end of the first quarter in 2009. The Advisory Board members all highly appreciated the objectives of the study and the approach taken. They also agreed that the study objectives are very ambitious and offered their continuous support to the project. The study will conduct background research and review existing measurement tools and systems for ICT for Health, as well as available eHealth statistics, in order to establish a framework for data compilation and to make progress towards the future establishment of an effective eHealth benchmarking system in Europe, collect the data on an agreed set of eHealth related phenomena from existing sources including professional bodies and regional and national ministries. The study will compile data from existing sources rather than generate original data and – depending on the data availability – provide a measurement for each of the agreed indicators in each country, identify, analyse and report good practice in developing and applying eHealth measurements and benchmarking frameworks for informing policy-making (in all 29+2 countries), and develop and deliver 29(+2) Country Briefs summarising key results for each of the European countries and plus Canada and the USA and make all study results available through a dedicated Online Knowledge Base. Thus this study will significantly enhance the capacity of the i2010 initiative to achieve its goals in relation to monitoring and benchmarking eHealth, a key aspect of information society developments in the old and the New Member States.

empirica presents the results of the study on "ICT and eHealth use among General Practitioners in Europe" at the European Ministerial eHealth Conference 2008

Tue, 13 May 2008. The study carried out for the European Commission DG INFSO and Media included a survey of almost 7,000 primary care physicians on their use of ICT and internet for communication with patients and between primary and secondary care and other health agencies was carried out in 2007 in all 27 Member States of the European Union and in Norway and Iceland. The purpose of the study was to: measure the use of ICT by primary care physicians in the EU and EEA countries, which is to be achieved by means of a survey of primary care physicians and their use of ICT and Internet for communicating with patients and between primary and secondary care and other eHealth agencies. Through this survey up-to-date information and data on eHealth developments was obtained, thereby - and through the 29 Country Briefs for each of the 27 Member States, Norway and Iceland - enabling member states to monitor their performance to improve public services. The study was a continuation of the earlier benchmarking exercise for eEurope 2002. The presentation, the final report and the 29 Country Profiles are available on the study website www.ehealth-indicators.eu and also on the European Commission i2010 website

An interview with the project manager Werner B. Korte, empirica can be found here...

Clear policies have a positive impact on the spread of eHealth use

At the European eHealth Conference in Slovenia, the European Commission has presented the results of a pan-European survey, showing that European doctors increasingly store and send patients' data such as lab reports electronically. 87% of European general practitioners (GPs) use a computer, 69% are connected to the Internet, and of these 69% with a broadband connection. HealthTech Wire talked to Werner B. Korte, director at the research and consulting firm empirica, about the study results and how general practitioners could make better use of eHealth applications such as telemonitoring, electronic prescriptions and cross-border medical services.

Published: 05/07

- (HealthTech Wire) - Which results of the study did you find most surprising?

Despite the wide availability of a computer and an Internet connection, these are not yet regularly used for patient encounters and paper-based data handling is still prevalent in many GP practices. It is most striking in areas like the transfer of data to reimbursing institutions or medical data transfer to other healthcare providers where the difference between the availability and actual use – the readiness-use gap – amounts to a substantial 54% and 59% respectively. Another striking example is the use of a computer to show patients any health-related information during consultation, which is only practiced by 14% of the GPs in Europe, although 87% could do so. The survey results also contain some good news for European and national policy makers in the eHealth area – in countries with clear policies and strategies, these seem to have had and continue to have a positive impact on the spread of eHealth use.

The study has shown that European doctors often exchange data electronically with laboratories (40%), but less so with other health centres (10%). What is the reason for this?

There seem to be some established approaches to the division of labour between GPs and labs, but not yet with other care providers. However, the survey results also show that Europe is on the right track in this area since, for instance, the share of GPs exchanging medical data with other healthcare providers has increased significantly, tripling from 9% to 27% between 2002 and 2007.

Doctors not using ICT cite a lack of training and technical support as major barriers. How could training and support be improved and how can healthcare IT companies help eliminate these barriers?

The inclusion of eHealth in the curricula of medical education, more IT training for GPs by way of making it part of continuous medical education (CME) and continuous professional development (CPD), and the wider use of clinical information networks by all health actors to share patient data would foster a further spread of eHealth applications. These are seen as the most important measures to be taken and it's a view also shared by most of the GPs surveyed. By assuring seamless interoperability among their various systems, proven by certification, and cooperating towards the development of a single European eHealth market, industry could play a leading role in this process and improve its competitive position globally.

This is a HealthTech Wire Original text. You are free to use it, in full or in part, for journalistic purposes. You must, however, always quote or link to the source: HealthTech Wire (www.healthtechwire.com).

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